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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24478159">No Next Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NienteZero/pseuds/NienteZero'>NienteZero</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Leverage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gratuitous, Hurt/Comfort, Medicinal Drug Use, Multi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:01:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,215</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24478159</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NienteZero/pseuds/NienteZero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot gets beaten up in the course of a con. Of course he does, it's his job. But Parker and Hardison can't prevent him from getting dragged off to the hospital, and Eliot and pain medication don't mix well.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>229</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No Next Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Listen, we broke you out of the damn hospital, I'm taking you home, but hell <i>no</i>, I'm not dropping you off at your safe house to hide and lick your wounds."</p><p>Hardison took his eyes off the road to glance over at Eliot. He wouldn't be so mad if Eliot was his usual grumpy self. But no, he was asking nicely, with the big sad eyes and everything. Like when he was playing one of his low-status grifts, all "Hardison, please, man," and little sad mumbles.</p><p>It was killing Hardison, but also all the more reason he wasn't going to drop Eliot off in a cold apartment to curl up and be miserable.</p><p>Shit, no one was to blame for Eliot ending up in hospital in the first place. Well, the bad guys were to blame for him taking a beating, but the rest of it - Parker moved fast, but Eliot's cover as a newly transferred in local firefighter was too good, and he'd made himself too well liked to be able to get him out from under the tangle of first responders who had him in ambulance minutes after he extricated himself from the local debt collector's thugs.</p><p>Parker didn't <i>like</i> plans where sometimes Eliot had to get roughed up to sell a bit. Hardison flat out hated them. But usually they worked, and usually there wasn't an overenthusiastic gang of EMTs on hand to drag Eliot to the place he least wanted to be.</p><p>Sure, Eliot could have refused transportation, but the stubborn bastard was maintaining his cover. And it had taken a couple of hours before the hospital staff were done getting Eliot admitted and fixed up and left him alone long enough for Hardison to go get him.</p><p>Now Eliot was in the passenger seat of Lucille, high as a kite on god knows what drugs he wouldn't normally take, begging to be allowed to hide his ass from Hardison and Parker, and Hardison wasn't sure who he was madder at.</p><p>"Alec, please," Eliot said, as they pulled up in the laneway beside the brewpub, "I can't... not like this."</p><p>Hardison growled and helped Eliot out of the van. You don't play your team, and this side of Eliot he'd never seen outside a con. </p><p>Eliot actually cringed at Hardison's growl.</p><p>Hardison sighed, taking Eliot's arm and supporting him into the building.</p><p>"I'm not mad," he said, "not at you, anyway. Just sit your ass on the couch and rest."</p><p>"'m sorry," Eliot said. He hobbled over to the spacious, squishy couch, and curled himself up into one corner of it, looking small and closed in. </p><p>Hardison sighed and rubbed his head. This was freaking him out. The job wasn't blown. In fact, Eliot going down hard enough to end up in the hospital secured his role as a man who might be open to an illegal payday from insurance fraud. It just didn't seem worth it to Hardison right now, to go forward with this job.</p><p>Not with Eliot behaving like a kicked puppy.</p><p>Hardison got Eliot a glass of water and put it on the table in front of him. </p><p>"You want a blanket?" he asked. He was beginning to regret his assumption that Eliot was playing him in the van on the way over. The way Eliot wasn't meeting his eyes now wasn't a con.</p><p>Eliot looked up and nodded at him.</p><p>Good enough. Hardison went up to the loft bedroom the three of them shared most nights to get one of the good, thick blankets. Parker was up there, sitting on the bed crosslegged, fidgeting with an elaborate puzzle box. Hardison recognized it as a gift from Sophie. It only came out when Parker was in distress. Great. </p><p>"We're home," he said redundantly.</p><p>"He'll want to be alone," Parker said, "I would."</p><p>"Right," said Hardison, "well you both are just great at taking care of yourselves."</p><p>He knew it wasn't fair, but he just couldn't shake feeling so angry about all of it. He took a thick blanket from the linen closet, stalked back downstairs and dropped it on the couch beside Eliot, and headed for the playstation where at least he could pretend like he was shooting people who deserved it.</p><p>He was about ten minutes into an Overwatch session, headphones on and yelling quietly at his teammates in the game, when he sensed a presence behind him. </p><p>"Sorry guys, I gotta drop," he said. It wasn't going to do his rankings any good, or his reputation, to drop in the middle of a game. But today was not the day to worry about that.</p><p>He took off his headphones and stood up. Eliot was standing there, blanket wrapped around himself.</p><p>"Y're not mad at me?" he mumbled. Those huge damn eyes again.</p><p>"El, I told you I wasn't mad at you," Hardison said, "c'mon, let's sit you back down on the couch."</p><p>"Stay?" Eliot said.</p><p>"You want me to stay with you?"</p><p>Eliot ducked his head, looking embarrassed. </p><p>"S'fine, you can go."</p><p>"No, no," Hardison said, settling them both on the couch, leaning Eliot against him and wrapping the blanket around him. "We just thought you'd want to be, you know, alone."</p><p>"S'the damn drugs," Eliot groaned. He didn't resist being pulled close to Hardison. In fact, he snuggled closer.</p><p>"They make me feel outta control so I didn't wanna... but they also make me feel... ugh, I don't wanna talk about this."</p><p>He gave a grumpy little shove against Hardison's chest, but then snuggled right back in.</p><p>Hardison rubbed his back, gently, conscious that he was still bruised all over the place.</p><p>"I thought you were tryna pull something," he said apologetically, "so I'd leave your damn stubborn ass at your safe house. Plus, you know, you scared me, and I hate that."</p><p>"I don't want you to see me like this," Eliot said.</p><p>"But you don't actually want to be alone, either," Hardison concluded. </p><p>Eliot shook slightly in Hardison's arms. He wasn't making any noise, but he had his face scrunched up like he was holding in tears. Hardison had seen Eliot cry before, the man had strong feelings, and some things got to him. But not like this, all turned in on himself.</p><p>"Okay, next time something like this happens, we're pulling you before you get to the hospital. I don't care about the damn job, you don't need to be dosed with medication that hits you this bad."</p><p>"I fuckin' hate this," Eliot mumbled into Hardison's chest.</p><p>"You're fine, we got you now, and you'll ride it out safely here. I'm sorry I was a jackass."</p><p>"Y're always a jackass," Eliot huffed out with the first hint of humor Hardison had heard from him since he got home.</p><p>"You want Parker down here? She's upstairs giving herself fits about the whole thing."</p><p>"Want Parker," Eliot confirmed.</p><p>He'd no sooner finished speaking than Parker was clambering in to wedge herself between Eliot and the corner of the couch, making an Eliot sandwich between them.</p><p>She looked over his head at Hardison, then leaned in close to talk to Eliot.</p><p>"It's going to be okay," she said, "we're going to make it okay, and it's never, ever, going to happen to you again."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Not subtle at all, this one's for all my folks who feel like they have to tough things out, but wish there was a cuddle pile to hold them and soothe them while they just break down.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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